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The QB Blast: Landry Jones Is Bucs’ Best Plan B

April 21st, 2013

Former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson

Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson (1990 & 1991) writes The QB Blast column here at JoeBucsFan.com. Joe loves when Carlson fires away. Carlson is often seen as a football color analyst on Bright House Sports Network, and he trains quarterbacks of all ages locally via his company, America’s Best Quarterback. Plus, he’s a really cool dude.

By JEFF CARLSONJoeBucsFan.com

This year’s draft does not offer an Andrew Luck, RGIII or Russell Wilson, quarterbacks with the ability to come in and start on Day 1. The Buccaneers don’t have that Day 1 need, but developing a QB for the future should be a priority even though Freeman is still very young, a third- or fourth-round pick used on a quarterback with promise is prudent.

Whether Josh Freeman has the best season of his life this year and earns a big multi-year contract or doesn’t, having another up-and-coming player ready to go is in the Bucs’ best interest for multiple reasons.

The Dallas Cowboys just rewarded Tony Romo with an unbelievable contract extension ($108 million, $55M guaranteed, $25M signing bonus). That’s for a guy that has led his team exactly nowhere and was on the verge of losing his second head coach under his leadership of the team.

I wrote before last season that if the Cowboys had another year of futility, it should be Romo’s last season in Dallas. They struggled again yet gave him one of the richest extensions in history, mainly because Jerry Jones did not do his due diligence to develop another young QB like they had in Romo behind Drew Bledsoe under Bill Parcells,. That left Jones without options and now they have mortgaged their future against a good regular season QB who can’t seem to lead them to anything that matters.

I don’t want to see the Bucs make that decision with Freeman because they don’t have the foresight to develop the depth of their roster at the most important position.

Landry is the right fit for the Bucs for a variety of reasons, writes former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson

Of this year’s group, I came away most impressed by Oklahoma’s Landry Jones. He has the best mechanics and pro-style potential and very well could be available to the Bucs when they should invest in the quarterback position.

Better ball protection was his biggest issue, but he owns the best balance in the draft and can learn to throw the ball away a little bit better and work on his pocket movement as well. He has a lot of starting experience and he fits the Bucs’ style better than the rest of this year’s hopeful signal-callers.

Florida State’s EJ Manuel would probably be my next choice based on potential upside. I would probably bore JoeBucsFan readers with analysis of his spotty and inconsistent mechanics and what he should do to improve them, but Manuel is big, mobile and also has an awful lot of experience on his resume.

E.J. Manuel’s mechanics need work

Freeman has 108 million reasons to hope he can take a couple of steps up and lead the Bucs into the playoffs in 2013, –while he keeps Landry Jones on the bench learning the ropes of the NFL game all season long.

72 Responses to “The QB Blast: Landry Jones Is Bucs’ Best Plan B”

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports the Jets have given Darrelle Revis permission to visit the Bucs and undergo a physical.
It’s a necessary, yet significant, step toward finalizing a trade. As Schefter also notes, the Jets would have never granted Revis permission to undergo a physical with the Bucs if they didn’t believe a trade could be worked out. Assuming Tampa Bay is happy with what it sees, then a trade should go down shortly. Latest rumors have the Jets acquiring first-, third-, and fifth-round picks in exchange for the soon-to-be 28-year-old All-Pro cornerback.
Related: Buccaneers
Source: Adam Schefter on Twitter Apr 21 – 9:07 AM

Mortgaging draft picks for a guy that’s gonna hold out next season for more money. Awesome plan.

As for the topic of this post, anyone who thinks EJ Manuel is anything but dog shiz, never watched him at FSU. He has ZERO pocket pressure and totally lacks the time clock in your head that any good QB has.

So let me get this straight…. Dom has held out this entire time because he didn’t want to give up the #13 pick this season. The Jets still have NO leverage yet we’re about to give them our #1 pick? Dom is getting DESPERATE, people. Not a good sign for this team.

If Revis is healthy and the compensation to the Jets is not too rich, there’s no doubt that adding Revis and Goldson will GREATLY improve our secondary this year! If we trade our #1 pick this year, I hope we can get a big DT like Hankins from Ohio state or Short from Purdue in the second round!

NOOOOO! If it truly is a 1, 3 and 5 this year with a $15 million per year contract we are going to be screwed for years if this doesn’t work out. We could have signed 5 players for $15 a year which is what we need, not a guy that is coming off major knee surgery.

I know Revis is an impact player, but I feel we not close enough to being a champion to make a move like this. As a Bucs fan I hope if we make this trade if works out, but we are taking a huge risk.

One thing that kills me are the articles out there saying that the team should be careful who they bring in as a backup QB so there’s no QB controversy and Josh doesn’t feel threatened every time he makes a mistake. The worst scenario that could unfold is that Josh under-performs this year and the team goes with Orlovsky as his backup. While I think next years crop of QB’s is better, the team almost has to draft someone this week to compete for the backup spot, unless Weber has developed over the past year enough to compete.

@Mike J: I’m right there with you. Manuel is awful. I’m sure he could put together a good film reel, but anyone who’s watched the guy play entire games knows he’s a fraud. 5th year senior that played like a freshman many many many times in 2012.

@BucGator: If its a 1, 3 and a 5, then we’ll all know just how desperate Dom is. Actually, they can have a 5th round pick. Dom would waste that on some chump anyways. But a 1st and a 3rd for a cancer who’s going to hold out next season for money just isn’t worth it, in my opinion.

“FireWilpon
I hate being a Jets fan, and I hate Woody Johnson. The 13th pick in this draft will not be as good as Darrelle Revis. The first pick in this draft will not be as good as darrelle revis. Draft picks are just lottery tickets. The Jets won the lottery, and are trading their winnings for more tickets.

@Snook,
The Jets have included provisions in his last contract (that HE SIGNED) that penalized him if he held out, so it’s very conceivable the Bucs would do the same as well. Would like to see ANY proof (though you seem more like an emotions person than someone that relies on facts) that Revis has EVER been a cancer to any team he’s been on. The guy is described by most as a tireless worker, great teammate and leader, and a backfield of Golson, Barron, Revis, Wright (& Barber in nickel) is a MASSIVE improvement from last year. Revis is a proven commodity in the NFL, while picks are not.

Nope! If we trade for revis then no one will be happy…everyone wants BPA and u can’t get the best player available until you kno his health.look at Derrick rose-been out over a year with acl tear.obviously the only logical way to fix this is draft tavon austin of course.then we at least have a kick returner and a 3rd string wideout.after that we realize Doug Martin isn’t good enough to be the focal point of the offense and we fire Dom and Josh.only way I see everyone happy in the end…

Agree with the leverage part and not overpaying. No one other than the Bucs and Jets has any idea what the compensation will be. Believe the 1st, 3rd & 5th is conjecture and more related to people looking at the Percy Harvin trade and going from there. Curious to see how it unfolds though I’m not as concerned with the picks simply because we have no idea how they’ll turn out. And if they’re spread out over this year and next even better.

“Yahoo! Sports’ Jason Cole reports the Jets and Bucs have already agreed on compensation in the Darrelle Revis trade, and a deal should be finalized Sunday night or Monday.
Cole adds that the Bucs and Revis have agreed on a “basic contract,” as well. Revis is set to hop on a plane en route to Tampa Bay in roughly 15 minutes to take a physical with the Bucs as the last step in the process. The Jets will likely get the No. 13 overall pick in Thursday’s draft, along with a couple of other mid- to late-round selections. Adjust your mock drafts accordingly. Related: Buccaneers
Source: Jason Cole on Twitter Apr 21 – 10:29 AM”

Jets could have avoided all of this if they would have dealt with this issue two years ago instead of handing Sanchez a huge contract. From a salary cap standpoint I’m not too worried. Not many GM’s pay closer attention to he dollars than Dominik. He’s always looking years down the road. He knows what it will cost to keep Freeman and McCoy in the coming years and will plan accordingly.
For those saying that we aren’t close enough to be making a deal like this, says who? Take a look at the QB’s and WR’s in our division, we aren’t going anywhere fast until we can slow them down.

Maybe Joe is in route to TIA to acquire a pic of Revis getting off the plane before he posts an article on the subject. Or maybe he just passed out in shock that this may be actually going down finally. Go Bucs and Go Dom for having the Balls to pull this off.

And we get to bury the NYJ in the opener. Should be fun start to season.

Revis, if healthy, is a tremendous addition to our team. Think back to last year and the games we would have won if Revis was playing.
NYG don’t beat us.
Philly doesn’t.
Brees doesn’t throw for 700 yds in that throwback game.
He could certainly be the 1 pt difference in our home loss to Atlanta.

Ok where to start, YES this makes the bucs a playoff team if you haters remember we lost 6 games with leads in the 4th qtr and 3 with leads with less than 3 minutes left , if adding a probowl safety and a probowl cb don’t help with that then what will. WithRevis and wright we have a good tandem at cb, and with golson playing the deep free it allows baron to play hos natural spot down around the line of scrimmage (where they had put ronde last year because of his lack of speed). As far as Freeman, you can’t tell me that losing games over and over when you gave your squad the lead late didn’t start to have an affect and make him press and try to put the ball where it shouldnt go. You Freeman hters kill me you do realize he holds all the franchise records at the age of 24 right? For about an hour the jets thought that Freeman was going there in a sanchez/revis for freeman and a pick deal and they were losing their minds for him. Does he have consistency issues, yes but who doesn’t at 24 , it took Eli 5 yrs to start playing decent and the year before he won his first superbowl he led the league in pics. We can all agree that Olsen was a joke and that now that free is in the same system for 2 yrs in a row with a good oc then he should take another step forward

My only question at this point is in what year the picks are coming from. Obviously if the trade is going down now it’s our 1st for this year, I certainly hope whatever the mid round pick is it comes from next years draft, and then I would assume the 5th or 6th at the end of the deal will come from this year as well.
I don’t have a problem with draft pick compensation so long as not all the picks come out in one year. Really, really hoping the mid round pick is a 4th since we’ve been collecting them, but I’m afraid it will be a 3rd.

You are normally on point with being one of the first to give us Buccaneer news, but you really dropped the ball on this one. You even let the sorry excuse for a website pewter report beat you out on announcing Revis is in Tampa. Wow!!! Did you guys take today off or something???????
Dear A-hole. Joe’s goal is to work as hard has possible for his readers. First, second, third to a story, Joe doesn’t keep score. Joe’s here to be the most comprehensive source for Bucs fans. Joe knows he is, therefore Joe thinks you’re an ass. –Joe

@ bucsguy
Thank you.been saying that for months now.24 years old and the sky is the limit.no way we would’ve traded him without giving him another year.eli manning is the perfect example for a young qb who just needs another break.

Everyone relax…joe knows most info before we do so obviously his comp messed up